iCloud nets 85M subscribers as sign-ups outpace device sales - Page 2

Am I the only one that mourns the loss of the preferences sync in MobileMe?

I remember just recently seeing a comoany wide q & a Steve Jobs did after apple's purchase of next, where he describes sitting down at any machine, logging in and have it be 'his' machine.

The best part of .mac and later MobileMe was to sit down at someone's Mac, make a user account and within minutes have it behave like all my other macs.

I think iCloud already syncs at least one folder in the system, so I'm hoping this feature is revived before MobileMe is wrenched from my cold dead hands.

in June I guess.

I've sync'd my entire Documents folder, and worked directly from it, through iDisk for years. The virtual disk appears on my iMac's desktop and I drag frequent-use folders from the virtual disk straight to my Dock and access anything I need directly, using the same folder organization I've built up for over a decade. Opening and saving files (all types) directly from applications through iDisk made all my data accessible from any computer or device either directly (with the iDisk app) or through the iDisk website.

Documents in the Cloud only works with iWork documents (doesn't even support PDFs), I have to use a mobile iDevice to create folders (can't do it on my Mac), and would require me to recreate my entire folder organization from scratch. I don't understand why Documents in the Cloud doesn't have the same drag-and-drop simplicity of iDisk. Why is Apple unable, or unwilling, to replicate iDisk functionality (exactly as is) in iCloud, even if for a fee?

Maybe I'm missing something, but Documents in the Cloud is not only a poor substitute for iDisk, but is a mess when it comes to file management. How are other people with years worth of files, organized the way they want them, transitioning to Documents in the Cloud?

Or are most people just not using DitC in favor of Dropbox or SugarSync? And do they have mobile iDevice apps to access their content?

I'm right there with you! DitC is half-baked at best. I'm hoping they bring it up to speed before the kill off iDisk for good in June. The way it's going though, come June, I may be forced to migrate to iCloud and open a SugarSync or DropBox account. Not looking forward to that mainly because I'd like to keep my digital footprint as contained as possible.

Just drag the dropbox folder to the side of finder. Done deal.

And/Or you can drag it to the Dock and/or use the Menu Bar of the OS option built into Dropbox and/or put an alias on the Desktop and/or even the Tool Bar of Finder. So many ways to use it.

Sounds simple enough. I'll look into these options come June if Apple doesn't incorporate this functionality into iCloud. Thanks!

In System Preferences/MobileMe, 3rd tab 'iDisk' at the bottom you can set your 'iDisk Sync:on' so it's available even if you don't have internet access. This will create a sparse disk image in ~/Library/FileSync/MAC address(*)/username_iDisk.sparsebundle. When MobileMe get EOL-ed on June 30, 2012 you still have access to your 'iDisk' and the folder structure you created. After Apple discontinues MM you can then (or now for that matter) keep on using your data using this sparse disk image. Or drag all folders from the local disk image to your favorite location on your Mac and delete the image.

Cheers,
PhilBoogie

* MAC address of the NIC that was used for internet access when synching iDisk from the internet to your local Mac. Most likely there is only 1 folder in ~/Library/FileSync directory

FAQs about the MobileMe transition to iCloud (Apple.com)
Sparse disk image (Wikipedia)

Hmm, Wiki says thhe following, which I didn't know, but did expect from Apple:

Sparse bundle

Mac OS X v10.5 (Leopard) introduced the concept of the sparse bundle.[1] Instead of a monolithic file, a sparse bundle is a bundle (directory) that stores the disk image as banded data files.[vague] When the content of the image changes, one or more band files is changed, created, or deleted. This allows backup software (such as Time Machine) to operate more efficiently. You may use a tool such as rsync to keep your disk image(s) consistent across various systems[2]

Correct; you need to move everything into that Dropbox folder which you want synced. That folder can be put everywhere, but after you moved all folders to sync in there, all shortcuts to those folders break, on Windows. Sometimes Windows can fix that (by searching for the filename) but there is no guarantee that this works in your situation (I know from experience)

Apple simply withdrew from the market of folder syncing. Not least because there are very well-working competitors like Dropbox and SugarSync that offer the additional advantage of cross-platform compatibility (plus a few more things like versioning etc.).

Why is iCloud so exspensive for such small space, the free service only gives you 5gb? Skydrive gives you 25gb for free, Box gives you 50gb, Asus WebStorage only cost 20 dollars a year for "unlimited" space. Plus I find it to be really slow to upload something compared to the forementioned. I do live in Switzerland so maybe the Apple servers are just slow here. Right now Im just using it on my iPad but I wish you got at least 30gb so I can completely back it up.

I think their thinking was that when people buy an iPhone and later get iWork they have the opportunity to sync those docs over to your Mac and iPad. Meaning it wasn't designed for large media folders or something, but moreso as a service if you get into their ecosystem.

Don't know why iCloud is slow at your end. I'm still using iDisk in The Netherlands and it isn't 'slow'

I do like that as I now use iWork as my main word processor. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles like MS Office but I really don't need that. My friend has a different ISP and he tells me it's pretty quick for him to so it might be a DNS problem on Orange's side, my ISP provider. I think I'm going to change my provider to Swisscom. Oh and I just bought the keyboard from Logitech where the iPad folds into it, awesome just awesome. I don't know why I added that, I'm just so excited to have it I guess.

When I got my Asus Slider for work it included a year free for their Asus Webstorge service with unlimited storage. It's one of the best online storage sites I've seen and they have a iPad app/client. So I guess I can live with only 5 GB for iCloud and use it for backing up my data and then use the Asus Webstorage for my media, movies, music, ebooks, stuff that takes up room. I already have over 120 GB on it, every time I rip a DVD or CD I upload it.

A great feature on the Asus Webstorage service is that you can stream your uploaded DIVX/AVI files live from the site or convert it to Flash on the fly if that's easier for the user. That leaves my iPad out but I can still enjoy it from my Asus Slider or Macbook Air. Why does the Apple iPad suck so much when it comes to codecs and Flash. Is their a Divx player for the iPad that can view streamed souces? Most of my movies and television shows come from a DVR, what's the point of having movie channels if your not going to record the movies.

Ooops sorry for rambling guys.